Twelve of the airmen were members of what is now the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin. Their faces are etched into the memorial’s stone wall. A sword, eternally engulfed in flames, stands tall out of a rock in front of the wall, which also shows the names of the seven airmen from Patrick Air Force Base who were killed.

“It has been 17 years since that tragic day,” Col. Todd Canterbury, current commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing, said during the ceremony. “Despite the years, the flame of remembrance we see here continues to burn bright, signifying their service still matters.”

About 15 family members of those killed in the attack attended the remembrance.

Airman 1st Class Joseph Rimkus, 22, died after the building he was in collapsed in the blast. His younger brother, James Ryan Rimkus, who was 20 at the time, attended the ceremony for the first time in his life, although he lives nearby in Valparaiso.

“I really haven’t properly grieved yet,” he said. “This is so hard. I feel him right here, in my chest.”

James Rimkus had joined the Navy and was in boot camp when he received word that his brother had decided to join the Air Force. They enlisted two weeks apart.

His brother’s death tore him apart. He left the Navy shortly after and struggled for many years to deal with the loss.

“I leaned on him more than I thought I did, until he died and I realized just how much,” he said.

Shyrl Johnson traveled to the memorial from Central Florida to honor her late husband, Staff Sgt. Kenneth Johnson, who left behind two sons – one 2 months old and the other 4 years old.

His sons, now grown, sat at their mother’s side.

“To think of this day every year is hard,” she said. “But when you are surrounded by people who haven’t forgotten, that makes it a little better.”

The airmen were deployed in support of Operation Southern Watch, which was tasked with patrolling the no-fly zone over Iraq after the Gulf War.

On the evening of the attack, a large truck drove as close as it could to one of the compound’s buildings and detonated in a huge explosion.

Across the base, Lt. Col. Brian Henson, a maintenance officer on his first deployment, was working the late shift on the flight line.

He saw what he thought was lightning and heard what sounded like thunder.

“How is there a thunderstorm in the middle of the desert?” he thought.

Then he realized they’d been attacked.

They wanted to run to the building to find their friends, their brothers, to dig through the rubble.

But they had to stay put. There was no one else to do their job.

“This is it,” he said they thought at the time. “This is all we have.”

He said there was no time for sadness, for fear, for shock. They kicked into gear, preparing the flight line and the jets for what was next.

“We could have been raging, but we knew this is a part of the job, this is the risk we take,” Henson said. “Our job is to maintain and persevere.”

The rest of the airmen came to them; they didn’t know where else to go. They set up a makeshift barracks in the flight hangar.

He remembers visiting with the wounded.

“These poor 23-year-old kids, cut to pieces, glass everywhere,” he said. “I will never forget seeing that, they were just asking about everyone else, their roommate, their friends.”

Many returned to work.

“We were hurt, but not broken,” Henson said.

It wasn’t until days later when he got off the plane at Eglin that he was able to let down the strong shell he’d been carrying since the attack.

“That was tough,” he said.

Hundreds of people were on the flight line to greet them, the last of the airmen to return after the bombing.

“To see the outpour of welcoming, that’s when I broke down,” Henson said.

Although it was his first deployment, he said the attacks did not deter him from his service.

“I signed up to be a part of something through thick and thin,” he said.

Henson was the guest speaker at Tuesday’s ceremony. He has just been stationed again at Eglin for the first time in more than a decade. He serves as program manager for the B61 nuclear weapon modernization program.

He said he was honored to be a part of the ceremony, and remembers well what the families of the fallen went through in the days immediately following the attack.

“I want them to know that that day is never going to be forgotten and the faces that they see on these stones were never lost to the 33rd.”

Twelve of the airmen were members of what is now the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin. Their faces are etched into the memorial’s stone wall. A sword, eternally engulfed in flames, stands tall out of a rock in front of the wall, which also shows the names of the seven airmen from Patrick Air Force Base who were killed.

“It has been 17 years since that tragic day,” Col. Todd Canterbury, current commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing, said during the ceremony. “Despite the years, the flame of remembrance we see here continues to burn bright, signifying their service still matters.”

About 15 family members of those killed in the attack attended the remembrance.

Airman 1st Class Joseph Rimkus, 22, died after the building he was in collapsed in the blast. His younger brother, James Ryan Rimkus, who was 20 at the time, attended the ceremony for the first time in his life, although he lives nearby in Valparaiso.

“I really haven’t properly grieved yet,” he said. “This is so hard. I feel him right here, in my chest.”

James Rimkus had joined the Navy and was in boot camp when he received word that his brother had decided to join the Air Force. They enlisted two weeks apart.

His brother’s death tore him apart. He left the Navy shortly after and struggled for many years to deal with the loss.

“I leaned on him more than I thought I did, until he died and I realized just how much,” he said.

Shyrl Johnson traveled to the memorial from Central Florida to honor her late husband, Staff Sgt. Kenneth Johnson, who left behind two sons – one 2 months old and the other 4 years old.

His sons, now grown, sat at their mother’s side.

“To think of this day every year is hard,” she said. “But when you are surrounded by people who haven’t forgotten, that makes it a little better.”

The airmen were deployed in support of Operation Southern Watch, which was tasked with patrolling the no-fly zone over Iraq after the Gulf War.

On the evening of the attack, a large truck drove as close as it could to one of the compound’s buildings and detonated in a huge explosion.

Across the base, Lt. Col. Brian Henson, a maintenance officer on his first deployment, was working the late shift on the flight line.

He saw what he thought was lightning and heard what sounded like thunder.

“How is there a thunderstorm in the middle of the desert?” he thought.

Then he realized they’d been attacked.

They wanted to run to the building to find their friends, their brothers, to dig through the rubble.

But they had to stay put. There was no one else to do their job.

“This is it,” he said they thought at the time. “This is all we have.”

He said there was no time for sadness, for fear, for shock. They kicked into gear, preparing the flight line and the jets for what was next.

“We could have been raging, but we knew this is a part of the job, this is the risk we take,” Henson said. “Our job is to maintain and persevere.”

The rest of the airmen came to them; they didn’t know where else to go. They set up a makeshift barracks in the flight hangar.

He remembers visiting with the wounded.

“These poor 23-year-old kids, cut to pieces, glass everywhere,” he said. “I will never forget seeing that, they were just asking about everyone else, their roommate, their friends.”

Many returned to work.

“We were hurt, but not broken,” Henson said.

It wasn’t until days later when he got off the plane at Eglin that he was able to let down the strong shell he’d been carrying since the attack.

“That was tough,” he said.

Hundreds of people were on the flight line to greet them, the last of the airmen to return after the bombing.

“To see the outpour of welcoming, that’s when I broke down,” Henson said.

Although it was his first deployment, he said the attacks did not deter him from his service.

“I signed up to be a part of something through thick and thin,” he said.

Henson was the guest speaker at Tuesday’s ceremony. He has just been stationed again at Eglin for the first time in more than a decade. He serves as program manager for the B61 nuclear weapon modernization program.

He said he was honored to be a part of the ceremony, and remembers well what the families of the fallen went through in the days immediately following the attack.

“I want them to know that that day is never going to be forgotten and the faces that they see on these stones were never lost to the 33rd.”